Sir Francis Drake
Subtitle: the Queen's pirate
By: Harry Kelsey.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 566
Subjects: Drake, Francis, Sir, 1540?-1596.; Admirals -- Great Britain -- Biography.; Privateering -- History -- 16th century.; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography.; Great Britain -- History, Naval -- Tudors, 1485-1603 -- Biography.; Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Biography.
Genres: Biography.
Description: In this new biography, Harry Kelsey shatters the familiar image of Sir Francis Drake. The Drake of legend was a pious, brave, and just seaman who initiated the move to make England a great naval power and whose acts of piracy against his country's enemies earned him a knighthood for patriotism.

Kelsey paints a different and far more interesting picture of Drake as an amoral privateer at least as interested in lining his pockets with Spanish booty as in forwarding the political goals of his country, a man who became a captain general of the English navy but never waged traditional warfare with any success.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.